Amtrak Slumming and Trans Workouts

As l mentioned on Monday, I took Amtrak from Lauderdale to retrieve G, my other half, where the temperature is already plummeting and drive him and his hound Sammy in his Ford Escape to spend another winter at my humble abode in balmy Lauderdale.

With 26 hours on the train, I took the opportunity to catch up on my magazine reading and brought along with me some recent issues of Men’s Fitness. It’s the American male’s ode to the perfect body and a great tool to hustle the latest in supplements, fitness paraphernalia, cologne, and bulgy Tommy Hilfiger underwear to an under thirty crowd between pages of impossible workouts, trendy nutrition advice, and even columns on improving your sex life. (That l don’t need – why do you think l didn’t have a chance to read those magazines at home, huh?)

That’s why l give MF the Ballsy Award of the Year to include in its December issue a story, “The Ultimate Transformation” about a groundbreaking gym in of all places, Kansas City, Missouri, dedicated to helping transgendered men beef up. l must admit my feelings about transgenders had been mixed up to now, but reading this article has changed my views 360. (At least re. the gals to guys variety.) It highlighted the challenges these born-as-women now men face in re-sculpting their bodies to fit their new genders, and the role both boot camp style workouts and, most importantly, testosterone plays in making that possible.

As one endocrinologist quoted in the article points out, “Testosterone is the only big hormonal difference in men and women, far bigger than estrogen, and it has greater immediate influence on a man’s physical appearance than even his chromosomes.” Besides being able to lift much heavier weights than they ever could as females, a number of the trans guys featured even grew facial and body hair. They actually look hot!

Not that testosterone doesn’t come without a price. Just like us born this way, transgendered men increase their risks for heart disease, stroke, aggressive behavior, even receding hairlines. Oh yea, and as the article put it, that “overwhelming dingy locker room stench.”